As is well known in the gas turbine technology, the stators for the compressors, the compressor rotors, the stator for the turbine rotors and the turbine rotors are all subjected to extreme vibrations when the engine is operated and particularly when in gas turbine engines powering aircraft. It is also well known that there has been and continues to be a great emphasis of solving the vibration problems that are associated with gas turbine engines. While dampers are frequently employed to dissipate the vibratory energy, these damper take on many different configurations, sizes and shapes of many different materials. This patent application addresses the vibration problems of the stator and the rotor of gas turbine engines when these devices are fabricated as segments, either in segments consisting of single vanes or blades or segments consisting of multiple vanes or blades.
It is also well known that commercially available braided wire has heretofore been utilized to dampen vibrations in devices utilized for securing pipes, tubes, rods and the like mounted on gas turbine engine cases. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,950,970 granted to myself and McGhee on Sep. 14, 1999 entitled CABLE CLAMP DAMPER teaches the use of braided wire to clamp pipes to the casing of an aircraft gas turbine engine and the damping is a result of the individual strands of the braided wire rubbing against each other to dissipate the energy of the vibrations. It is noted that in these teachings the problem being addressed is the attachment of the tubes or pipes or the like to a case that is subjected to extreme vibrations. This invention begins where those teachings leave off. The problem being solved by this invention is dissipating the energy of the vibrations that are induced in a stationary stator or a rotary rotor where the hardware is made in segments. In other words, the braided wire of this invention is not utilized to hold the segments in place inasmuch as there are other means that perform this function. But rather, the concept of this invention addresses the problem of solving the problem associated with the extreme vibratory motion of the individual segments of a segmented vane or a segmented blade configuration of the stator or rotor of a gas turbine engine.